Interview

Finding Rising Stars Amid Rising Rates

Mark Kiesel, who has run the Pimco Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund since December 2002, arrives at his office in Newport Beach, Calif., at 3:30 in the morning. He's not an insomniac. Rather, Kiesel needs to keep tabs on the European bond market, which is open by then. Getting to work in the middle of the night comes with overseeing $135 billion in assets, mostly in global corporate bond portfolios. That challenging schedule hasn't prevented Kiesel, 43, who's worked at Pimco for 17 years, from earning distinction as a bond manager. Morningstar named him fixed-income fund manager of the year for 2012, citing his...